Oh, the first 3 night run at deer creek. after finishing the tour here the year before, in my opinion, not so rousing fashion. the first night of '99 was very good, but the 2nd set of the 2nd night was filled with gaffs and first set was a snoozer. well, the fans were not expecting a snoozer here, and the first night did exactly what i was hoping it would do. they got a lot of the farm house stuff, which was being played quite frequently at this point, out of the way, and they played it well. this left them two nights to dig a little deeper in the phish catalog. as for this night...

cars trucks and buses: this was a nice opener on a hot indiana summer day. ctb was played in that good ol phish on a hot night, loose but still tight fashion. good to get page front and center right off the bat.

wilson: this got the crowd nice and jacked up, as it tends to do. nothing to out of this world.... good wilson

it's ice: here as a nice treat. this one stopped popping up so much after '96, so this was a pleasant well-played treat. very good ice

bathtub gin: this is my first set highlight, musically speaking at least. they got deep into that noodley bt gin jam that frequently got into between 98-00. trey and page bounced off each other really well.

buffalo bill: i figured they would slow it down after a strong gin jam, but holy surprise! this was truly rare at this point in time. it was also very strange placement, but hell, i'll take buffalo bill anywhere.

mmgamoio: we thought they would get weirder after bill, but they straightened out a bit. this is my favorite of phish's bluegrass covers, and they werer really sharp on it.

soa melt: this was a good solid first set melt. they didn't space out at all, but they did rock straight through a relatively short jam. nice tight playing as the sun finally started to go down.

sparkle: this was a nice quick snappy version which slammed into...

funky bitch: wammo! this one was good and it really got the energy up. phish was being very creative with their set list selection already. i think a lot of people thought this might close the set... maybe a quicky after this but...

david bowie: this was a nice straight forward bowie. trey really navigated the jam on this one. gordon and fish bounced off of each other nicely. great closer to a great first set of six at deer creek!!

set 2

gotta jibboo: here we go. i knew this was going to open one of the sets, so i like to get the predictable out of the way. this was a nice concise version. i liked the antioch opener from earlier in the summer a little better, but this one was nice and spiffy. plus, it dropped into....

sand: i love this song. it was/is my favorite of the farmhouse/trey band songs that started popping up in phish setlists in 99-00. of course, trey dicked around with that stupid mini key board for a bit too long, but phish dug in to that deep sand groove and explored it well.

twist: well, this completed our farmhouse jam song trifecta. my enjoyment of this song decreased after the rearrangement, but this was the tightest version i heard all summer. they really built this one up nicely... good climax.

fee: this was also kind of a quasi rarity at this time. hard to fuck, good song, and this one really fit in here. it kind of spaced out and went into...

what's the use: i never really liked this one, but this version was a)well played and b)this song just simply fit well in this slot. good spacey/explorative wtu.

limb by limb: they were really drilling this song between 97-00, and this was no exception. they had some nice exploration before hitting that cool spirally climax they do in limb. once again, this fit well, and was well executed.

loving cup: a very over played song in my opinion, and i was happy to get this one out of the way early in the weekend. but like the rest of the set, it fit well and was played. good closer.

enc:
after they played the show before at alpine valley, many thought this my be the first antelope'less deer creek run, but phish pulled it out 2 shows in a row. not the best version ever, but the surprise factor ups it. good encore and a good start to the 3 night run.

overall:
this show had excellent "flow." they played very strong versions of a lot of songs that i thought were overplayed in the good 'ol summer of 2000. they are good songs, just a touch overplayed.

The excellent SBD/AUD recording on the spreadsheet makes this a worthwhile listen alone, but the songs you expect to bring the jams in a late 1.0 show (Gin, Jibboo, Sand, Twist) are all pretty pedestrian. My favorite segment is the Fee > What's the Use? > Limb by Limb run deep in the second set. Fee's outro naturally flows into WTU? and the following Limb has some great licks from Trey. The Antelope encore is a nice bonus too. This is a middling show overall but the great recording makes it more attractive.

A solid, straight-forward show that now looks and feels like a warm-up for the next two nights at Deer Creek. Gin, Split and Bowie rock in the first set, Sand has its moments, and Fee>What's the Use is an interesting listen on tape (or Mp3, whatever you prefer.)

Good show, one that you could definitely enjoy killing a few hours with, but don't expect a lot of risk-tasking from Phish. That would happen the next two nights.

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